Tender
by Alis Volat Propris
Summary: It was the tender moments that made their relationship though he would die before admitting it. She really was endearing, and it was that fact that annoyed him. Saitou/Misao Wolf/ Weasel
1. Chapter 1

AN: feeling a bit lonely, figured I would channel that towards my favorite pairing.

Misao could tell that something wasn't right. It wasn't anything he was doing, because, really, the man was anything but unpredictable in his patterns. He lived his life regimented, by routine. And so seeing one Mibu Ookami sitting on the porch smoking his cigarette at this time was typical, usual even for his petite wife to see. How she had ever married him was anyone's guess and infact their coupling was the current talk of the town. After all Saitou was not exactly the most sociable and polite officers in Kyoto. And Misao was a beloved icon of their bolstering city, a part of the old and new.

Misao sighed, blowing the bangs out of her face with a sigh of frustration. Saitou Hajime was a cold and calloused man to those who did not know him and he liked to keep it that way, the baka. It made his job often times easier for him. He was the kind of man that tried to keep everyone at arms length, to distance himself from his job, his emotions and feelings. He didn't want to hinder anyone to burden anyone with his feelings, but Hajime would never admit this. He was used to being so strong all the time. But even he couldn't avoid the regret he felt on this holiday. He couldn't overlook his own feelings. It was the day of the Shinsengumi's downfall. Misao knew, remembered the things he'd told her though getting him to talk of such things was like pulling teeth, but the fact that he;d told her, had trusted her with something so sacred to him made her heart soar.

Misao would never forget when he told her, would never forget something so important to the man who held her heart, whom she had married in spite of the problems and the grouchiness. And though he sat on the porch, smoking a cigarette as he watched the birds chirp, and eat at their bird feeder, he couldn't fool her. She knew something was wrong and she wasn't about to let him get a way with being unsociable and reclusive. Not from her, anyways.

Misao walked up long braid snaking behind her, bounding after her as she stopped in front of him. She wore the Oniwabanshuu gi she always had. Ocean green eyes took in dull amber. It was his eyes that gave him away.

"Any particular reason you're blocking my view, Itachi girl?" Saitou asked, smoke floating as he pulled his cigarette from his lips, exhaling the smoke.

Misao didn't answer. She took his cigarette from his gloved hand and ground it beneath her heel.

"I wasn't finished with that" Saitou glared. It was a known fact that his wife did not approve of him smoking his cigarettes. She would never admit that she liked the taste of them on his lips and that she missed the smell when it wasn't on him because he didn't smell like himself then. Misao still didn't respond and that irritated him

"If you're going to be annoying and not even bother to say why-" He started.

Before Saitou knew it, she was curling herself in his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Saitou tensed, the feeling of her pressing herself against him so openly still unfamiliar, cumbersome. The girl was a handful really and he never quite knew what she was up to. He wasn't used to someone so open to their feelings being around him all the time. She changed him and that in and of itself was a nuisance. He liked who he was. He wasn't a man used to being touched and felt. Itachi was a cuddler and it was awkward still, though one of the things that had attracted him to his petite wife in the first place. He had married her for pete's sake so there had to be some admirable qualities in his relationship.

"Itachi-"He started to complain, even as his arms were wrapping around her to keep the girl from falling off his lap, in one of her typical bouts of clumsiness. Really he was forced to dote on her nearly every waking moment. How the girl had taken care of herself for so long as she traversed Japan he would never know. It was a good thing she had run into him when she had during their Kyoto adventures with Shishio.

"It's okay to be sad. To feel sad, Hajime." She retorted, burying her head in his shoulder as she cuddled closer, refusing to be pushed away or aside.

Saitou's eyes widened and then returned. "Misao.."

He felt her lips on his neck and suddenly his thoughts took on a new derailed train of thought as he sucked in a sharp breathe. Itachi's tongue kissed a trail up his neck, and she placed delicate kisses along the side of his jaw. Saitou closed his eyes, reveling in the feeling his mind completely distracted. She always distracted him. How had he ever thought that was a good quality, a desireable quality in a woman. She was keeping him from his thoughts, his work. Why had he married her again? _Ah yes,_ he thought as she nibbled, _there was that_

_The sheer desire that coursed through him every time she used those lips, those hands to touch him, taste him...The protectiveness that came, arose whenever she was in danger, the need to have her light her laughter around him to keep him from sinking in the ghosts from his past. _

Misao's lips kissed the corner of his own, trailing and teasing. Saitou had had about enough, fingers digging circles into her hips. He grabbed her with a growl, bringing her up to him and kissing her, as he readjusted the girl more comfortably on his lap.

She grinned into his kiss like a pleased cat, apparently having found the reaction she was looking for and he found himself annoyed with her for being so smug. The waves had turned it seemed. And he wasn't the only one picking up habits of his beloved, albeit impertinent spouse.

"Minx" He told her with a glare, looking upon his thoroughly kissed subject at hand.

Misao grinned, lips kiss swollen, cheeks a becoming shade of pink. "I love you." She replied eyes glowing with the sincerity of her feelings, the depth of her heart.

Saitou was once again amazed, floored by the depth of her feelings. She was so young and really didn't or couldn't know what love was, but she did. She knew the kind of depth and self sacrifice it took to make it work. The girl had had her heart trampled on by the icicle after all. Which was convenient because he had been able to step in at that point and procure her for himself. Gaining Itachi's heart had been a steady and difficult process, a process that when he looked back on it, he did not regret it. And she had come to love him, as deeply as truly as anyone could. She meant it, as she spoke the words to him, and he knew she wasn't lying.

"You can be sad. Just don't keep me out" She told him.

"Why?" He asked her on a whim. He probably shouldn't have.

"I want to be with you. Even if you're sad. Whatever it is" She told him sincerely, wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him. "This is your fault anyways, making me love you" She quipped with a delightful smile.

They both knew she didn't regret it. And truly neither did he if he was being honest. But when was he ever honest anyways? Besides he liked it when she was mad.

"Baka Itachi." He murmured, though his arms wrapping around her waist, squeezing her, holding her like a lifeline to never let go.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: I can't stay away from this couple for long really. When all other plot bunnies fail my Saitou Misao ones seem to thrive. If you enjoy this couple please read the rest of my stories of them, and all please read the other ones people have written because they are amazing. This couple deserves more love.

"What do you MEAN you have to work on our _anniversary_?" Misao bellowed, flames of jade flaring as she glared up menacingly at her very tall husband.

Not too long ago Itachi had woken up and wondered what he had planned for their surprising day. This indeed was a surprise in the very worst sense of the word.

"You heard me, Itachi. I can't just get out of it" Saitou replied, perhaps a bit too harshly. The man was known for his calloused and withclosed demeanor but he hadn't necessarily meant to protect that very ruthless aura at one petite wife.

Those jade eyes snuffed out, ocean blue wrapped, engulfed in threatening tears. Saitou swore as he moved forward, but she was quicker as she turned and sniffled.

"I'd planned something really nice..." She murmured, defeated and sniffling.

"Damn it, Misao. It's not like I can get every day off. They were already suspicious about my cold the other week." He told her, tentatively reaching a gloved hand towards her. She froze, and Saitou withdrew his hand as she recoiled turning as she glared at him.

"So you're telling me you _forgot _our anniversary?!" She asked coldly. For why else would he NOT have gotten today off. The flames surrounding her aura practically scalded them. And suddenly he remembered why she was the Okashira of the Oniwabanshuu.

"Shit" Saitou swore, as he backed up, Misao following him as he retreated from her impending anger.

"SAITOU HAJIME!" She shrieked her rage. "You bastard of a cop!" She exclaimed, launching kunai at him.

"I didn't forget!" He cried, ducking and dodging the cutlery his wife kept on her at all times.

Damn her, the kunai were embedded in the cedar wood of their house. The very expensive cedar wood of their house. The very expensive cedar wood of their house that she had insisted they get. The very expensive cedar wood that she was putting holes in as they speak. They'd now have _more _holes in their very expensive cedar wood. Misao's violent tendencies were too expensive. Saitou's eyes narrowed as he surveyed their most recent damage. It was her insistence that she have a home to live in that had gotten him into this mess in the first place. Now she was putting holes in it, holes that she would insist were his fault and that he would un doubtably have to fix later. Troublesome conniving expensive wretch of a weasel of a woman.

"I did try to get the day off. Stop making holes in the wall" He ground out, jaw clenching.

Misao's eyes filled with tears again and her hand trembled on the kunai.

"Is that what you care about? Your stupid walls?" She murmured, turning from him and walking away.

Saitou growled, making use of his incredibly long legs, and bridging the distance between them in three times the pace of her own tiny feet. He turned her by the shoulders to face him. He practically shook her, in his frustration.

"You're doing it again"

"What?" She asked him, though her heart wasn't in it.

"You know thats not what I care about"

"You have a funny way of showing it" Misao pouted, tears dripping down her beautiful cerulean eyes.

"And so do you....What is with you?!" He asked her, astounded at her incredibly pouty mood.

"It's not like you care" She murmured darkly, but she knew he could hear her clearly. Saitou's eyes narrowed.

"Stop being so damn emotional and childish and _talk_ to me" Saitou ordered.

Misao's eyes narrowed, the childish jibe being particularly poignant due to one emotionally constipated icicle.

"You're acting like this isn't a big deal at all. Like being married to me isn't something we should celebrate. Do you even care that it's been a year? I love you so much and you can't even manage to scrape up the emotion on the celebration of the day of our marriage and You're cheapening our marriage and...and and I'm sooo angry at you. I can't even believe you!" Misao snarled, releasing her pent up anger.

Saitou nearly smirked. For though, contrary to her outburst; he did care for his wife, but seeing her angry was truly one of his particular pleasures. Saitou could admit he was rather sadistic in his tendency and Misao was beautiful in her anger. She also spoke truthfully in her anger. He loved her, but he loved fighting with her, seeing her passionate, and furthermore tapping into that passion. He loved to see her cheeks flushed, to see her get bothered, and then he loved to make her hot and bothered all at once. The make up was completely worth the effort of getting her to this point as well. He loved her stubborness and her static refusal to submit. She wouldn't back down from a fight with him, from a challenge. Her untameable unbreakable resolve was one of the reasons he prodded her in the first place, because he loved it about her so very much.

"This isn't a big deal. You're making this a big deal. I have to go when its time for work. If you want me to stop calling you a child then stop throwing tantrums about things I can't change" Saitou replied.

"You arrogant-"Misao snarled, finally loosing her cool and turning.

He caught her hand in his, pulling her against hard against him as his eyes flashed, grew feral yellow, amber in their inflamed desire for the woman he had married a year to this very day. His thoughts went back to their wedding night and he couldn't stop his eyes from giving her a arduous look up and down.

Misao herself was flustered, thrown completely off balance as usual by the man who she hated, who she loved like no other. The man who was insatiable and incorrigible all at the same time and making her feet go weak, and her heart do somersaults and her stomach flutter by giving her that absolutely I'm gonna have my way with you consequences be damned look that had gotten her into this mess in the first place. Goddamn it he had insulted her, had said mean nasty horrible things, had told her she was tantamount to a child was- looking at her with the look that promised very many great wonderful hot sweaty steamy-

"Sexy as hell, tall dark and handsome" He murmured completing her sentence for her as she stopped, flushed and confused by his gaze and by her own warring emotions.

"I hate you" She murmured, eyes half mast as she glared furiously up at her husband. His lips met hers in a tangle of a heated gasp as they both struggled to remove the offending clothing barring the way of their very eager hands.

"I love you." He gasped as they stumbled. They didn't quite make it to the bedroom as usual

…....................................

Contrary to his wife's belief, Saitou had in fact remembered their one year anniversary and as his wife was at least sated for the time being as he made his way to work, he could breathe a sigh of relief. You see, Saitou had been working on surprising her and really needed the time to do hadn' t exactly lied, because he needed to do this work in order for her to be surprised. So he hadn't told the exact truth persay, but really it was for her greater benefit and as the girl was asleep from the things he'd done to her (and she'd given as good as she'd gotten, if not better) he figured they were even. And the look on her face when he arrived with her surprise would be worth while.

Of course she had made him pay. She had used her womanly wiles against him to force him to refute the fact that she was a child. Because children didn't do those sort of things to each other. No, his wife was far from childish, though he teased her mercilessly about it. Fortunately Misao was easy to love, and more importantly the woman was gracious with her forgiveness. She didn't have it in her to hold grudges for long. Misao had forgiven him for his comments, and he had even found it within himself to apologize for them. Misao was a grown woman, a beautiful grown woman, becoming more womanly every day a fact he never ceased to tell her. He loved his wife's spirit, her never ending spunk. Saitou wanted a woman with some fight in her, a woman who wasn't shy or timid. And though Misao was unsure when they had started this, she was certainly learning fast and coming up with some tricks of her own.


End file.
